Y go E? E-portfolios and Emerging Professionalism –
School of Public Health and Family Medicine
Health Sciences Faculty
An Evaluation of the First Year Health Sciences Student Experiences
Lorna Olckers, Lindiwe Dlamini, Viki Janse van Rensburg and Melanie Alperstein
Introduction
Results: Use of e-portfolios as an electronic tool
Becoming a Professional (BP) and Becoming a Health Professional (BHP) are courses which
introduce all first years in the Health Sciences Faculty to the process of developing professional
conduct. The educational approach is participatory and experiential. Students are required to
engage actively in small learning groups.
Students are introduced to the Integrated Health Professional diagram (Olckers, Gibbs & Duncan,
2007) (figure 1). This helps in conceptualising holistic and integrated professional development.
Through analysis of the data, distinct theme areas emerged. These can be grouped under two
areas: the use of a portfolio as an electronic tool and the use of a portfolio as a reflective tool.
Most students highlighted these theme areas as benefits of using e-portfolios as an electronic
tool.
Students are required to use reflective portfolios to systematically reflect on experiences and
consolidate theory and practice.
The Reflection
Health
Professional
IntraPersonal
Dimension
The Empathic
Health
Professional
Being, Becoming
The
Intergrated
Health
Professional
Journals
2002
InterPersonal
Dimension
Portfolios
2007
Reflection
Improved
writing skills
“Yes, it pushed me to present
my information / opinions in
a more formal fashion. This
is also important in being
professional. You need to
present your information in
a formal, understandable
manner.”
Doing
Knowledge
Dimension
“It was a tool that aided me in
consolidating my knowledge
and experience; week by
week.”
Consolidation of
theory & practice
Students were posiitive
about the use of
e-portfolios in their
reflective practice process
“Good computer literacy
practice. Really helped
improve speed with which I
work with a computer”
The knowing Health
Professional
Reflection is a process to strengthen the integration of students’ own life worlds.
(Ekebergh, 2009).
Conclusion
In 2011, the decision was made to change from paper-based to e-portfolios. This was in response
to both external and internal influences.
External
Internal
• These results are solely based on the students’ perspective.
“The system forced me to
improve my time
management skills as
having the tasks due every
week made me prioritise my
learning in all my subjects.”
Rationale
•Pilot more technologically appropriate methods for the current generation of
technologically-savvy students
•Be responsive to the current trend in higher education to increasingly move
education to electronic platforms.
•Adapt and manage higher education provision in a climate of increasing student
numbers and shrinking budgets.
Improved time
management
• The results reinforce the value of portfolios as a reflective tool and
the additional value of e-portfolios as an electronic medium.
• Some challenges were evident including the dates and times of
Learning about
professionalism
Research Design
•Formative evaluation of
e-portfolios
•Quality enhancement
•Improvement of teaching,
learning & assessment
•Evaluative research
(Babbie & Mouton, 2001)
•Qualitative Study
•Open-ended questions
•Likert scale
e-portfolios for their learning.
Participants
•Purposeful sampling
•Response rate: 79.5%
of all first year students
(290/365 students)
• Further study needs to explore the experiences of educators/
• Overall, students appeared to be very positive about the use of
Some students mentioned these themes as challenges of using e-portfolios.
Purpose
submission and the number of them required.
markers.
•Facilitate a means of more regular contact between students and their facilitators
•Monitor students’ work for plagiarism
Methodology
“It has probably been the
biggest part for me. Reflecting
has completely changed me
and allowed me to grow in
every aspect of my life. I think
that being marked in the
reflections provided good
motivation to improve and
really take it seriously.”
Learning
computer
skills
E-Portfolios
2011
Figure 1
Results: Use of portfolios as a reflective tool
References
1. Babbie, E. & Mouton, J. (2001). The practice of social research. Cape Town: Oxford University Press
2. Ekebergh, M. (2009). Developing a didactic method that emphasizes lifeworld as a basis for learning. Reflective Practice,
Submission date
and time
Frequency of
submissions
Structure of
tasks
10 (1) 51-63
3. Olckers, L, Gibbs, T and Duncan, M. (2007). Developing Health Science Students into ˜Integrated Health Professionals –
a practical tool for learning. BMC Medical Education, 2007, 7:45.
Contact
[email protected] & [email protected]
poster:www.imago-visual.com